Personal watercraft and similar types of boats and marine vessels are able to accelerate, decelerate and change speeds quite suddenly. This can create an extremely dangerous situation. If the operator of a neighboring vessel is unaware that a personal watercraft is slowing down, the neighboring operator may be unable to take timely corrective action. Dangerous and potentially deadly collisions often result. Colliding watercraft are apt to incur significant damage and require expensive repairs.
The present invention helps to reduce the forgoing problem by providing a personal watercraft or other marine vessel with warning lights that are activated whenever the vessel decelerates. Although various declaration warning lights are already known for motor vehicles, these devices invariably require that the vehicle must first slow to a threshold speed before the warning light is activated. None of the known devices activates the light virtually instantaneously and simultaneously with the commencement of deceleration. A much faster and more immediate warning is required, especially for personal watercraft, as well as for land based vehicles such as motorcycles and ATV's where sudden deceleration can present the risk of a serious collision almost instantly.
Conventional deceleration based warning lights are also inadequate for personal watercraft, motorcycles, ATV's and the like because of the severe inertial forces (g-forces) exerted in various directions on such vessels and vehicles while they are operated in a typical sporting or intense recreational environment. On the water, waves and rough conditions tend to exert vertical acceleration forces upon the watercraft while it moves forwardly. Such forces are likewise exerted on motorcycles and ATVs by bumps and uneven road conditions. By the same token, lateral g-forces are exerted on such vessels and vehicles as they turn. These vertical and lateral forces tend to inherently contribute to at least some forward deceleration. Although I have determined that it is generally desirable to activate a warning light instantaneously upon any forward deceleration, I have also determined it would be annoying, inconvenient and potentially dangerous for such lights to be automatically activated when the forward deceleration is caused by spurious vertical and lateral g-forces as described above. This would result in an almost constant flashing of the warning light during operation of the vessel or vehicle over a rough or bumpy water or land surface, or during turning. This would be quite distractive to nearby watercraft operators and vehicle drivers. In order for a deceleration warning light for personal watercraft, motorcycles, ATVs and the like to be practical it must eliminate the foregoing problem.